CHAPTER STATS

Word Count (Excluding A/N): 1497

Date Updated: 2/22/17

Current Review Count: 931

Gray angrily treaded down the path from Forget-Me-Not back towards Mineral Town. He'd asked around everywhere he could think of. The folks at the Inn only knew him as Vaughn, and apparently anything he bought was in his own name and not in any company's name. Marlin and Celia didn't seem to know anything, only that he'd been the trader assigned to the Valley for the last five or six years. Before him, only old Vesta knew, and her memory was going so quickly that she was of no help.

As he neared the farm, he hesitated. Maybe Kai had heard back from Flowerbud…? He couldn't let Claire know that there was a chance, not until he was sure it might pan out. He couldn't bear to disappoint her.

So he hurried past their farm, alone, as the afternoon sun poured down on the lightly-browning trees. The season was changing. Every day that passed, their little girl was that much further from ever coming home.

Ooo

"I'm sorry, man," Kai said, sighing. He leaned against the counter of his little restaurant on the beach. "I haven't heard back yet. I sent a letter the day after we spoke last, and I called and left a message, but Dan hasn't said anything. It has been a while since we last hung out…"

Gray exhaled heavily from his nose, glaring down at the countertop. He was impatient. How could so many potential leads fall so flat?

Just as Gray was about to voice that thought, Kai's phone rang. The two men shared an anxious glance before Kai picked up the receiver.

"Hello, Kai's Snack Shack, this is Kai."

"Yo, Kai, bro! What's up? I just got your message! It's Dan!"

"Dan! How are you, man?" Kai said, smiling widely at Gray.

Gray stared, his gaze hard and anxious.

"Yeah, yeah," Kai said, nodding into the phone. "Hey, listen, man. I have a favor to ask you."

"Anything, bro! What can I do for ya?"

"Is there a travelling animal trader who comes by Flowerbud at all? His name would be… uh—" Kai looked at Gray, his eyes wide.

"Vaughn," Gray said instantly. He could feel sweat forming on his forehead in anticipation.

"Vaughn," Kai said, laughing. "His name would be Vaughn."

"Ugh," Dan said, his voice doing nothing to conceal his irritation. "Yeah, I know him. Silver hair, kind of mean? Doesn't talk a whole lot? Why, what business does he have out there in Mineral Town?"

"You do know him," Kai said, half-question, half-exclamation. "Well a friend of mine is trying to find him. Or, at least, figure out what company he works for."

"Is that dude in trouble or something? It would sure explain a lot…"

"What do you mean?" Kai asked, genuinely curious. Gray looked at Kai, desperately wishing he could hear both sides of the conversation.

"Well, he was stuck over here for a few weeks on account of the storms. He got real mean by the end of it. I mean, not, like, too bad. Just you could tell he was getting antsy, you know? Like he needed to be somewhere. If he was on the run, it would make a lot of sense…"

"He's not in any trouble that I know of. Or on the run," Kai laughed, glancing over at Gray's seething stare. "At least, not yet."

"Well, I don't know anything about his company, but I can ask Blue next time I see him. Actually, now that I think about it, that Vaughn guy kind of reminded me of Blue… Both work with animals, but kind of mean. But Blue wears this stupid baseball cap all the time. I try to tell him it makes him look like a teenager, but he just grunts and walks away. You know?"

Kai glanced over at Gray, who was fingering the edge of his cap. "Yeah, I totally get that."

"Anyway, I'll call you back as soon as I find anything out!"

"Thanks, Dan," Kai said, smiling as though he were talking to his old friend in person. "I owe you!"

"No prob, man. Drop by sometime!"

"Will do! See ya!"

Kai hung up the phone and turned to Gray. "Well, good news and bad news."

"He doesn't know anything," Gray said glumly, a scowl forming on his face.

"Not exactly," Kai said, grabbing a washcloth to wipe down the counter. "He knows him. Says he's kind of mean. Actually, he sounded a lot like you used to be, back before Claire."

Gray rolled his eyes. "Great. So my daughter is hanging around some asshole. What else? Anything about the company?"

"Not yet," Kai said. "He's going to ask around. Apparently Vaughn was stuck in Flowerbud for weeks because of the storms."

"That would explain him not being in Forget-Me-Not," Gray muttered. "Or wherever Chelsea is…"

Kai shrugged. "Well he seems to have left for now. My guess is that he'll show up around Forget-Me-Not soon, if he's not stranded anymore. You may be able to catch him yourself."

Gray nodded, then took his leave after thanking his friend. As he made his way home on the lamp-lit paths of town, he knew that he had a lot to tell his wife over dinner.

Ooo

The warm night air was beginning to cool. Chelsea looked up at the stars and slipped her bandana off and into her hand, allowing the breeze to push her hair across her face. She was tired. The days had been so long. This season had taken more out of her than she'd ever thought she had to give. Weeks of torment, of apathy, of loneliness—she couldn't believe that she'd made it to the end of this hell of a summer.

Her crops had done decently well, despite all the storms that had hit the island this season. She hadn't expected such a big harvest, having never had a truly successful season. Her poor body was ready to fall apart after working all day, and she still had an entire plot to work on.

Sighing, Chelsea tied her bandana back onto her head, ready to get to work. She brought her eyes back up to the sky once more, looking for strength from the pin-pricked constellations and the deep red remnants of a sunset behind the mountain. Suddenly, she felt her bandana slip off. She turned around in surprise, nearly falling over from the quick movement.

"Vaughn," Chelsea grimaced, reaching for her lucky bandana. "Give it back!"

Vaughn chuckled, holding it up too high for her bony arm to reach. "Y'look nice without it. The wind all messin' with your hair'n all."

Chelsea felt her cheeks go rosy at the compliment, but she still maintained her scowl. "I need it to hold my hair back while I finish harvesting. Come on, Vaughn…"

Vaughn rolled his eyes at her and gave it back. He watched her fasten it behind her head, enraptured by the way she stuck her tongue out slightly while she concentrated.

He couldn't believe she was his.

Vaughn walked over to the plot of corn still waiting to be harvested. He began pulling ears off the stalks, placing them in a neat pile on the ground to be shipped.

As Chelsea secured her bandana, she turned to see Vaughn working on the corn. She smiled to herself, her blush spreading. He looked so good working here, on her farm. The dim light of the moon in the early evening did its best to make the image that much more magical. Chelsea couldn't believe it. Vaughn was here. He was alive. He was hers.

She walked up behind him and threw her arms around his waist. She felt him tense up for only a moment before he relaxed in her grip.

"Y'know it'd go a lot faster if you stopped hangin' off of me," he mumbled, clearly not feeling as annoyed as his words might have Chelsea think.

"Thank you for helping me, Vaughn." She buried her head in his back, smiling to herself. She felt him shrug and drop another ear of corn into the pile.

"Don't mention it," he said, searching through the stalks and trying to keep his face from heating up. "Y'look like you're 'bout to faint, anyway. Let me finish."

"It's my farm. I'm not letting you do all my work for me." Chelsea let him go and stood next to him, pulling an ear of corn free. She turned and smiled up at him, making his stomach flip. "But thank you for your help… I really appreciate it."

She pushed up on the tips of her toes and, dropping the ear of corn, she pulled his face down to place a gentle kiss on his warm cheek.

He blinked at her once, seeing her big blue eyes shine up at him in the moonlight. Then, dropping the corn in his hand, he pulled her in for one long and tender kiss.

Hey, I'm alive. No good excuses here. The fic turned seven (!) yesterday, and in honor of a review that I received from an anonymous reader a few days ago, I decided to revive this thing. Thank you for your review. It meant a lot to me and it brought me back to a simpler time. Seven years is a long while, y'all. I'm graduated from college now, and I'm engaged to a wonderful man, and I'm kind of an adult (?). So strange to think I started this story as a project when I was a freshman in high school. Here's to more updates, and more frequently, at that. Love you all. xoxo RJB